Labor

August 20, 2012 - Planning is underway to make the opening day of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. one to recognize the struggle of workers in the nation's least unionized and poorest paid region.

August 13, 2012 - When the CIO launched a campaign to organize Southern workers in 1946, the region's elite fought back by exploiting fears about race and communism -- and fear remains the biggest obstacle to organizing today, as the UAW's campaign to unionize Nissan's Canton, Miss. plant shows.

August 8, 2012 - After Katrina, New Orleans fired all 7,500 of its teachers. The firings were recently ruled illegal, but teachers won't get their jobs back. Instead, the union is fighting for teachers and students through a grassroots, social justice approach.

August 6, 2012 - The number of workplaces with egregiously bad safety records has doubled in the past year. OSHA's effort to focus on these employers is laudable -- but is it enough?

August 3, 2012 - UAW President Bob King says organizing foreign-owned auto plants is make-or-break for the shrinking union. A Mississippi Nissan plant where temps are a quarter of the workforce is the UAW's first Southern foray in 11 years.

August 1, 2012 - Organizing projects underway in Nashville and Memphis bring together labor, community and faith groups to challenge a status quo that keeps the state and region near the bottom of the economic ladder.

July 13, 2012 - History shows that union membership has grown when labor has been on the offensive fighting for all workers. That's why SEIU organizer Rand Wilson argues that the movement's next fight should be for state laws requiring "just cause" before a worker is fired.